My Yogi

Isn't that the perfect tree pose? 

6 months

Stats:
weight 15.4 lbs, 25 to 30%
height 25.5 inches 25 to 30%
head big

Well the first thing you can see is that I can sit up all by myself and I am pretty stable.  I also have plumped up the body a bit.  See my squishable legs.  I am still petite but definately not skinny.  I still love music just as much and I crack up for my big sis all the time.  I am grabbing things more and tranferring them between hands.  I am so close to crawling but since I don't practice that often, Mommy thinks it will be a few weekd.  I tried food and my tummy did not appreciate it so we will give it a try again soon.  I am sleeping in my crib every night now and I get up anywhere between 2 and 100 x a night ( i think Mom exaggerates on the 100).

Clothes and Diapers:  I am in 3 to 6 month clothing and that fits me well.  Mommy has said I am going to wear whatever we have in the closet even if it is big for the summer.  I am wearing my best bottom diapers the most and have outgrown some small pocket diapers and covers.  Newborn prefolds trifolded still work well. 

I think my favorite toys right now are keys and paper.  I also love elmo and the leapfrog learning table.  I look longingly at my swing but Mommy does not let me in there very often. You try to turn over in there one too many times,  almost doing a flip and she gets a little nervous, sheese.  I am hanging out in the Ergo and Moby now and loving them.  I like to face in the most and not out in the Moby mom has found because if I get overstimulated I like to hide my face.  I am a bit shy too.

Oh and aren't I unbelievably cute???

Swim Class

Celia was over the top excited for her swim class.  I thought that would allow us to get out of the house on time, wrong.  Celia, get on your flip flops.  Okay Mommy, so we can go.  Yes, Celia.  I go back to changing Audrey's diaper and look up at Celia who is hanging out in her toy area withou the flip flops.  Celia, you need to get your flip flops on.  Oh, you mean now.  I give her "that" look and she goes to get on her flip flops.  I think we are good.  I tell her that I am going to put Audrey in her carseat and to come out when she has them on.  Audrey is all belted in, but where is Celia?  We wait, and wait, and wait.  I go to check, she is playing.  Celia, we are late, come on.  Oh, it's time!!  She gets all excited.  Yes, get in the car!!!  Drive at granny speed due to the delivery truck in front of us that basically goes all the way to the fitness center.  Ugh.. We get there 5 min. late and Celia announces that she definately has to use the bathroom.  Okay... do that, as she has to notice and talk about everything we are seeing.  It was her first time in a ladies locker room, yes imagine those questions. 

Then we finally get to the lesson.  She does awesome except she does not stop talking.  She is one of two kids in the lesson, not bad for $10 a lesson!!  The instructor seemed good, I guess I am an okay judge as I was a competitive swimmer for many years.  She even had them go under water and Celia was great.

Now my overtired 3 yearold had a complete meltdown as we left the center.  She did not want to leave.  She screamed for about 5 min of the ride home and then just fell asleep, basically mid scream.  She awoke when I got home and did not nap, we did have quiet time though. She did act like an overtired hyper nut the rest of the evening.

Seriously, if someone dove in that thing they really should not be surprised by an injury!

Swimming

Celia has her first swim lessons today.  I found a very good deal at a place that has a very tiny pool but very good ratings.   I knew she was excited but I did not know how excited until she woke me up at 11 pm last night.  No.. she did not wake me up asking me when she was going, it was a request for water.  So I got up and got her water.  The whole time, half awake I am trying to figure what it is that she does not look right on her.   Then it hit me.

Me:  Celia, what are you wearing
Celia:  My swimsuit
Me:  Why?
Celia:  So I will be already for swimming
Me: Oh.  Well it is not for a long time, let's change back into your pjs
Celia:  Ooookay (if she had said no I would have gone with that option too)

I will let you know how the lesson goes!!

Playing Dolls

Celia gets me or Pete or sometimes Audrey to play dolls with her at least 1x a day, okay I get the pleasure now about 10x.

No Mom, her hair isn't all in her face, we just were overdue for a hair wash!  Okay, maybe it is slightly getting in her face again but we have not made it to the hair dresser yet.  If she would let me stick some clippys in that hair for more then 5 min. then we would not have this issue.

Happy Girl

What?  Your 6 month old didn't watch the horse race?

Audrey's new things

I think this is sort of her mad face, she started doing it last week and it was related to when she was mad at times.  However she does it at other times and breathes heavily while doing it.

For those of you that know the layout of my house, you will really understand this.  We came home from the library on Thursday and I set Audrey down near our coffee table, on the side closest to the front door.  I started making lunch for Celia and turned around to find Audrey in the pantry area right near the kitchen.  She rolled to get there, she rolls on our hard floor!  She doesn't seem to mind it, but I would think it hurts.  So now the basement door is closed since she really can roll to get to anywhere.  She is close to crawling but honestly she doesn't work on it a huge amount because she often cries if she is put down!  She is getting better though, a few days ago she actualy played with her toys for 20 to 30 min, while I was cleaning and not in the room the whole time!

She is doing a very good job sitting up.  She does topple over sometimes, so I just have to protect the area.  See Elmo in the background, besides Celia, he is her best buddy.  She smiles at him and flirts with him in the morning.  Honestly, she adores him.

Sleep.... well we have gone downhill again in that area.  Ugh...  I could blame it on a decrease in reflux meds, I wish it was that simple however this decline started prior to the decrease and she shows no signs of pain, she wants to eat.  It is not as bad as a month ago, nowhere near.  But some nights she is up every 2 hrs.  She could be going through a growth spurt as she is so hungry at some points.  I went in there one time and I swore her little tummy growled, it was making some kind of noise.  So perhaps she is truely hungry!!  She also does not necessarily nurse herself to sleep.  It will get better!!  Food was a no go.  We tried it for a week and she was ultra, ultra fussy.  We even tried avocado and she hated it.  So we decided to give it a break and try again maybe sometime next week.  But she was a complete wreck on the days that I gave her food!

My Little Artist

Celia has started taking an interest in drawing more and more.  I love this because it is an easy way to entertain her.  She is also getting really great in handwriting.  Basically she can write most all letters except for the very hard ones, S, Y, and Z are giving her issues.  Of course this all depends on her mood.  We still like to build mat man and now she is drawing him, and adding details.  Celia really likes to send mail to her Aunt Susie and her Grandparents.  Yes, Aunt Vickie and Mom Mom, I will try to get you included in her correspondence!

See the small CELIA on the first one, she did that all by herself.  We tried to right very, very, tiny.  Julie- that is advanced, right???  Do you notice the bow in the second picture. 

A conversation with Celia

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Not a morning person

We have discovered that Audrey may not exactly be a morning person, as pictured above..

Laughter

First Food

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Guess what I got to do?

Guess what they did to me on Mothers Day!

They strapped me into this contraption

I checked to make sure it was secure, yep it was

I read about Barbie

They then gave me this stuff, pretty good

My fingers tasted great too

Whose genius idea was it to let Big Sis try, I did not enjoy the spoon in the back of my throat

I think I am going to like this stuff

Happy Mothers Day

I have a better post for this day but yet again our 3+ year old laptop has decided not to connect to the Internet and typing on the iPad is a pain.

In any case, I am not with my Mom on mothers day this year. Typically she is here for Mothers Day but she is with my sister who has recently moved near Nashville. It has been a good mothers day with a photo album filled with Audrey and Celia pictures as the perfect gift. My favorite gift I think from my hubby. We had a great dinner with our neighbor and Celia was very well behaved until we put her to bed. Sunday nights are awful for bedtime for her.

I am 2

The other day I found myself begging my 3 1/2 year old in a very whiney voice "Please, please, please just go down and see Daddy and let me go back to sleep".  It is almost humiliating to have to do such a thing.  Audrey is getting better at sleeping but my body is so sleep deprived that the few nights that I am now getting 6 total hours is just not enough.  I need at least a week of 8 hour nights.  I have spent nearly 6 months getting more nights with less then 4 hrs of sleep then not.  I find myself forgetful, dizzy, blurry eyed, and irritable on more days then not.

So... when Celia pops into my room at 6 am when I just fell asleep again at 5:30 I wake up feeling as if I have the flu, honestly.  My body is screaming at me, go back to sleep, go back.  But Celia is screaming at me "Mommy, mommy, where's my balloon, hey Mommy I have to go potty".  She leaves, I sigh, then she returns and I find myself actualy whining again, me, I am a grown up and I am whining like a little kid.  "Celia, please go and see Daddy, I need to go back to sleep".  Of course I know at this point it really doesn't matter, I am up.  It takes me a good 30 min. to fall back to sleep and I have to be up at 7 am anyhow.  So she has returned to go potty in my bathroom, why, I have no clue, but she does.  I get the pleasure of wiping her tushey.. Fun times.  Then she decides to go down and visit Daddy.  Ahh... I settle back into my comfy bed, thinking I can just relax for 20 min and maybe that well help.  Audrey decides to wake up exactly 2 seconds after my head hits the pillow.  Is this some cruel joke?  Really???

I also have enjoyed my almost daily wake up calls around 2 or 3 am by Celia yelling at me that I did not check on her prior to going to bed.  She is asleep when I do but even if she is not, she doesn't remember me checking on me.  So I get the pleasure of being yelled at in the middle of the night.  This particular night she did not get up at all, I guess she had to make up for it in the morning.

 I have decoded that the next time she wakes me up I am going to throw a tantrum.  I an going to scream and kick my legs in the middle of the night.  Perhaps that will shock her enough to just trust that I do check on her.

Our New Stroller

I have been researching double strollers for a long time and searching craigslist almost daily for a used one of these, for under $300:




I never found it... Nor did I see any great alternatives.  I have the Single Bob and it is amazing.  So I settled with this

It is the Baby Trend Vision and it is less then $200, fairly good for a double jogger.  We received it in the mail awhile ago and is not a Bob.  The storage is great in the stroller, there is a storage area underneath that is divided in two.  That is a bit of a pain, but then I don't plan on carrying anything really big under there but really it would have been nice for it to be one big compartment.  There is a pocket in each of the seats that would hold a drink, just like in the BOB (though not as sturdy).  There is a pocket on the back of each of the seats, however not really useful in the reclined position which Audrey's will be in for a long time!  But that goes for any stroller.  There is also a parent cup and container caddy that can be attached to the handle bar.  Personally I didn't see any need for it so I didn't put it on.

Celia fits in the seat well although it is a bit narrow but as far as height goes, she has plenty of room.  The canopy tilts up and down to protect against the sun but will likely not protect a child from the rain the way the BOB does.  I have to keep comparing it to a BOB, I really do.  That said, I don't take the kids out in the rain, unless we get caught in a storm.  As far as how it rides, well the shocks are not like the BOB.  Taking it on rough terrain means the kids well feel it, but I think it would handle it for a short distance- for instance to cross a small path, etc.  You do feel like you are pushing two kids, honestly the BOB does not feel a great deal different when I am pushing Celia vs Audrey in it so I can only imagine that their duallie is the same way.

I started this post a month ago, when we first got the stroller.  I wanted to test it out for awhile before I wrote about it.  Well....  the wheel wobbled and on the stroller are directions to tighten a nut if the wheel wobbled.  We did this, still a tiny slight wobble but nothing huge.  I contacted the company though because I wanted some suggestiongs.  It was suggested that I inspect the wheel and some other things and keep it in the fixed positions when walking fast or running.  Keeping it fixed is a pain, you have to tilt it backward to turn, but I figured that was what I was going to have to do.  So I took it out for a walk about 2 weeks ago and all of a sudden the front wheel flew off.  No kidding.  I am 2 1/2 miles from home and the wheel is off, and the kids slammed down to the ground.  Well I got the wheel back on, it came off a few more times on the way home.   I contacted the company and I had to actualy call them back the next day as no one returned my call but they sent me a repair kit fairly fast.  They evidently don't even make the quick release wheel that I have anymore due to issues, hmm... then why are you still selling it!!  We took the double stroller to a park yesterday and so far so good.  I am not convinced yet that it won't be returned to the store at some point soon but if it rides like it did yesterday without issue then I am okay with it.  The only other complaint I have is that occassionally the back wheel will stick when I first try to push it. 

Would I reccommend this stroller?? Nope.  It does the job, it isn't a bad stroller.  But it is definately not worth the issues that I have had. 

Laura Story

This is the song that calms Audrey down almost every time. I find it a bit ironic that in the song is "1000 sleepless nights" hmm....

Honey, while you were at work I had fun

My friend shared with me about the embarrassment of her twins not acting that awesome when she helped out at their school. Hmmm, I am just glad she is not twins!!! This started at school.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Our Weekend- from Audrey

Well, this weekend we did a few things. On Saturday, they had me hang out while Mom and Dad sorted through a bunch of Daddy's shirts and my big sister harrassed me. 

But, here is the nice clean closet now.  Mommy sorted through her stuff on Thursday.... while my big sister harrassed me.  Do you notice a trend there?

Mommy is excited because she is trying out this new idea.  She is going to turn around the hangers in her closet.  When she wears something, then she will put the hangers back in the right direction.  At the end of the season, the hangers that are facing the wrong direction will tell her that she doesn't really wear those clothes.  I find it funny that Daddy has more clothes then Mommy, but oh well..  You should see my sister's closet, she has lots and lots of clothes!!  Mommy says it is cool because almost all of them were free.

After big sis woke up from her nap, we went to get something called Ritas.  I was not allowed to eat it but had a good time hanging out in the Moby wrap.  Okay so Saturday night we went out to eat with our friends at Wegmans.  I hung out in the Ergo which I need to talk to Mommy about.  I am not so sure if I am tall enough yet for that thing as I really am getting sick of looking at people through her armpit. 

Saturday night I decided to wake up every 90 minutes to nurse, a girl has to grow- right??  One of those times though I woke up because Big Sis also woke up.  She was yelling at Mommy about something so I decided it would be a good time for another snack.  Mommy was up anyway, right!  Mommy and I slept in a little, okay slept in and I had a few more snacks while Daddy to Big Sis to the pancake store.

I took a nap shortly after Big Sis got home and then for some odd reason, Mommy woke me up from my nap.  I find it confusing, they want me to sleep and then they wake me up.  They need to make up their minds.  I took a ride in the double stroller to a local park for a craft/music festival.   Big Sis got a balloon and hit me 32 times with it on the way home, I counted. 

We hung out in the afternoon and played, Daddy did a lot of laundry.  I army crawled a tiny bit, I don't know what that is but Mommy kept telling Daddy- "Hey, I think she moved forward a few times".  Hmm... I will have to try and practice that again.  But Mommy suggested I work on sitting up better.  She made Aunt Vickie's La Bamba casserole last night and everyone loved it, but again, not tastes for me.  Mommy said something about trying oatmeal in a week though!

Oh and this morning, Mommy got frustrated I think.  Big Sis got her transparent egg (some experiment she did with vinegar and an egg) out of the fridge and Mommy told her to put it back but it was too late- it broke.  It was all over the floor and Big Sis.  Mommy hosed Big Sis down and cleaned the floor.  I have no idea why she almost lost it when I then spit up just a little, I mean it just covered one whole leg of her jeans and about a 2 foot circle on the floor.  No big deal.  It really didn't get on me, that is all that mattered.